This was made with the gorgeous Angel with Globe stamp from Lost Coast Designs, whose image is most probably from a Renaissance tarot deck engraving of a card called "The Eighth Sphere." (Ptolemy held that the Eighth Sphere was the sphere of fixed stars that surrounded the firmament, outside of planetary orbits; more info about early cosmology is here if you're a geek like me who digs this stuff!)

I used this celestial imagery as a starting point for adding my own holiday sentiment to the piece--"Et in terra pax hominibus," which, if you are familiar with the Latin Mass, means "And on earth, peace to mankind."

If you want to learn more, you can find out the details of how I planned and made this piece over on my blog here. And good luck with this month's challenge! You ARE entering, right??

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Good morning everyone! I hope your December is going great and that Santa leaves a lot of gifts under your Christmas tree this year.

Since this marks my return to the team after being off several months, I wanted to share a couple of ATCs I completed. These were fun to create and can be done with a minimum of fuss or muss!

This bright and sunny ATC called Spread Your Wings was created with one of the larger stamps from the Large and Small Square Tiles Set One. I stamped it on a separate piece of card and colored with with markers. I created the background using inks and strips of tape, masking strips of the ATC until I had my pattern. Then I added the stamped image about a 1/3 of the way down. I used rubons to added the marks to the edges and the words directly under the image. The black butterfly was an acrylic piece I painted.

For Use Your Wings I colored the background with ink then stamped Flagstone Background in a different colors. Then I stamped around the edges with Tire Tracks Border. Finally, I stamped Flora from Mini Whimsical Birds 2 onto a piece of card, colored her with markers, then fussy cut her out. I positioned her so she was "standing" on the bottom border and added the Use Your Wings word sticker.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Darlene here today to share with you a card I made using the Flying Ballerina stamp. For this card I stamped her onto cardstock and fussy cut her out....and I did remove the wings :( But I did add the Christmas hat from the Part Hat set two.....
The dress is coloured with some chalk. Then popped her up to give the card some depth.

Some nice bright cardstock for the base - then ripped corners with some music cardstock. Added on the Snowflake and ribbon and of course - the saying....She does have a bit of a mischievous look don't you think?

Friday, December 16, 2016

Seasons' Greetings, Lost Coasters! Today I have a Christmassy piece of wall or table art for you featuring some of Lost Coast Designs' very coolest (IMO) stamps! (Oh, who am I kidding...I love almost all LCD images so much, it's like trying to choose a favorite kid.) Anyway, I dig the medieval/Victorian Gothic vibe of these stamps so much that I had to combine them, with metallics, for some holiday glitz and festiveness! Here's the piece:

But this "official" scan doesn't capture the depth and sheen of all the metallics very well, so here's a photo of the piece in different light too, so you can see what we're really dealing with here!

Here's how I made it.

First I took some acid-free scrapbook paper that was printed with a sort of linen fabric-looking pattern, then brayered on some thin layers of silver and gold acrylic paint diluted with iridescent medium. This gave a rich-looking shimmer to the background.

Next, I got out this awesome angel from the Fortune Women set, inked it up with black permanent ink, stamped it...

...and then cut out a mask of the figure. I placed the mask over the stamped image using repositionable glue, and got out this fab arch from the ATC Misc. Set 6...and stamped right over the masked image.

Next, I got out some (slightly used) washi tape and masked off the area below the gothic arch where I wanted to stamp this Clover Scroll border, which I love SO BAD:

Here's what those impromptu masks looked like before stamping.

After adding the scroll border, I pulled out my trusty Rustic Alphabet Set with its strong period feel, composed the word NOEL, and stamped that once in my permanent black ink. Then I overstamped it with embossing ink, offsetting the word just a TEENY bit to provide a hint of shadow, and embossed the word in gold powder.

Now it was time to add silver and gold gel-pen accents to the angel, border, and arch. And the piece was finished...

...Except for putting it in a frame, like so. 😊 Et voila!--a shimmery angel in gold and silver.

This is also the season for lots of dinner parties and guests need to
know where they are sitting so how about making some fun place holders
that are re-usable by adding banners die cut from Dry Erase White Board
tape by Scotch! I made these for our new LCPtoC Challenge #31 for December...this month's theme is Party Critters!

I used Nuance pigment powders by Magenta
to create the yummy colourful background. I love the feeling of
celebration they bring to my place holders, the burst of colours look
likefireworks...perfect! I used 3 of the newest colours to the Nuance
family: Aquamarine, Rosebud and Wisteria.

You'll notice there's some
extra colours mixed in there too...that's a little surprise you can get
with the powders. Sometimes a speck of powder from another colour gets
in by accident during production so you never really know what you're
going to get until you start creating. But it doesn't always happen so
each time you use the powders each result will have a different
effect...I think that's fun and quite magical. You can get the Nuance powders at Lost Coast Designs too!

The crows were all stamped with Onyx Black Versafine ink and the Loopy
Calligraphy background stamped with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. I added
touches of colour to the Crow's hats with Prismacolor pencils and
embellished with tiny assorted pompoms and tinsel pipe cleaners. I used
a Marvy corner rounder punch on the edges and doodled the black and
white borders with Dylusions paint pens. I made folded cards from green
cardstock and adhered the everything with Scotch Quick Dry adhesive.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Hello Everyone,
Karen here today to share a fun Birthday card I made for my nephew. I used one of the Party Dogs and He is ready to PARTY! This card also fits the December challenge theme-- which is Party Critters. Be sure to enter your project.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

We have a fun packed December planned for you😃
It's beginning to look very festive over at Lost Coast Portal to Creativity!
We are celebrating the season throughout December and into the new year in LCPtoC style🎉

We're sharing LCDesigner projects all month long so join us, spread the holiday cheer and enter your rubber stamped Christmas or Winter themed projects in our Xmas Linky Party at the bottom of Dec 3rd's Day 1 postby January 6, 2017 at 5 to midnight for the chance to win LCD/CV Bucks to spend in our Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda stores! The more entries the better the prize so round up all your friends and join the most festive party of the year🎉

Farewell to a LCDesigner😢
We are very sad to say farewell to Karen at the end of the year! Karen has been with us from the beginning and we will miss her dearly! We do hope she'll be back in the future so until then we wish her much joy and success in her new endeavours!
Stay crafty my dear friend!

NEW STAMP RELEASE!

On a happier note, a new stamp has joined our Lost Coast Designs line today....stop by LCPtoC to see our new cool kitty, the Snowcat, in action😉

Upcoming in December!

Our monthly Challengestarts on Dec 5th so stop by to see what fabulous inspiration the LCDesigners have in store for you! To ensure everyone gets to enjoy the holidays our Dec Challenge will end earlier than normal on Dec 20th!

Did you all see our 2 fabulous FAN FEATURES we showcased in November?
See them HERE and HERE if you missed them!

FAN FEATURES
is our new segment over at Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where we will
showcase projects created by our fabulous Event and Challenge Winners!

If you've won one of our past events or challenges then we would love
to see what you created with your prize rubber stamps! Submit your
projects for Fan Feature consideration to Leigh at LeighSBDesigns@cox.net or via Facebook messenger!

Friday, November 25, 2016

Hi all, it's Nan here with some thanks! Our theme for our challenge this month is "Thanks/Giving Thanks" and you have today left to enter! I just love the Winged Girl a new release at Lost Coast Designs and she embodies giving thanks to me. I also used the 3 inch Grunge Border (currently being readded back to the store but a smaller version is listed) and stamped both on a sheet of found vellum. Painted the back of the angel and added some ribbon, crochet, and flower ribbon to the side so I could attache the vellum. My pumpkins come from another favorite stamp of mine called Doodle Circles! I had no pumpkin stamps at all and had the Doodle Circles stamp out and noticed how much they looked like pumpkins! So a few lines, stems, and leaves colored up with Derwent watercolored pencils and I had three pumpkins!

So hurry up and stamp up some thanks and get an entry in so we can visit your blog and leave you some love and you get a chance to win stamps! Hope to see you at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity where all the news and winners and events are always up to date!

Thursday, November 24, 2016

www.Rubberstampchat.net Forum is hosting a Virtual Convention this weekend. It begins on Black Friday morning, and ends Cyber Monday night.

Lost Coast Designs RSCVC Special is

"Buy 6 stamps in any combination of unmounted, cushioned, mounted, and get 20% and Free Shipping!"

You can go directly to www.lost-coast-designs.com or www.CarmensVeranda.com to shop. Just use the Shopping Cart and enter the Discount Code RSCVC to get your discount.

** If the Code doesn't work, put RSCVC in the Comments area. It will show the full amount & your total will be adjusted before running your CC, or if you use PayPal, a refund for the discount will go back to your account.

International Orders:

20% off on rubber plus 50% off shipping!

Don't use the discount code, instead put RSCVC in Comments area so your new total can be calculated!

You can also go to www.rubberstampchat.net, and see the offers from the other vendors.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Well my crafty friends, Darlene here to share a little something. With Christmas approaching fast hope everyone has their Christmas cards all done....I do ....hehehhee

Today I am sharing a fridge magnet I made using Santa Mona. Stamped the image in blue onto shiny card stock and fussy cut her out. The hat was stamped onto some Christmas paper - embossed in white then cut out. Added some furry type stuff for the pom pom and brim of hat. This was added/glued to the first image.

At the bottom of the image I added some matching Christmas paper to put the saying on....

On back of Santa Mona is a magnetic strip so she can be placed in a prominent spot on my fridge.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

The fun never ends over at Lost Coast Portal to Creativity as we rolled straight from Halloween into our Day of the Dead Celebrations! Come and join the fun and enter your Day of the Dead projects in our DOTD linky party by 5 to midight on Nov 18th for the chance to win LCD/CV Bucks to spend in our online stores!

Now for my project...I used the 4.5 inch version of our new DOTD Angel and made a 3D Angel to sit on the top of my black Halloween tree.

I stamped her twice onto Neenah solar white cardstock in Onxy Black
Memento ink. I fussy cut out one entire image and then just the following from the 2nd: the flowers
from the wings, the largest flower on her skirt, her skirt bustle,
upper body and her halo. I coloured everything with Copics
and adhered red jewels to her bodice and bedazzled the fringe along the bottom edge of her gown.

To give her lots of yummy dimension I layered the fussy cut out pieces onto the main image with pop dots and also added even more dimension and
sparkle with touches of Viva Pearl magic transparent white
dimensional paint to the entire image.

To make the tree topper I cut a piece of acetate and formed a cone and manipulated the angel by curving the cardstock to fit the curve of the cone and adhered it
in place with double sided sticky tape. The finishing touch is her halowhich Iattached to a thin strip of acetate so it floats above her head.

I had a devil of a time trying to capture how prettily she glows in the dark but you can sort of see the effect in the photo below.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

I have for your amusement today a little project in celebration of the Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday with Aztec roots that gradually came to be associated with All Saints' Day in the Catholic Church.

I wanted this to have a traditional Mexican look, and chose cheery colors in a palette of corals, golds, and purples.

First I stamped the Skull with Wreath in black permanent ink, and masked it off. Then I stamped the Black Flourish twice around it in yellow. Next I placed the words using the Rustic Alphabet set, using several colors of Distress Ink, allowing them to blend together on the letters.

I colored the skull with thick creamy pencils in whites and grays, giving a matte, rich, chalklike texture to the skull. Then I got out several colors of Twinkling H20s, the wonderful metallic watercolors that can become pretty close to opaque when applied thickly. I painted the leaves on the wreath, then went over the yellow ink of the flourishes with a few tones of gold and orange. Suddenly the whole piece shimmered and sparkled with light and life, a wonderful contrast to the dead matte white of the skull.

There are so many fun things to do with these stamps. I was glad to make this spooky skull a little more friendly for the Day of the Dead...the glory of our ancestors etc. 😁

Monday, November 7, 2016

Hello Coasties!!
Karen here today with two funky ladies! I made a background for each. The first is made with a mono printing plate and the others are made by stamping a large background stamp on white CS.

Aren't they grand?!! The ladies are so fun to use and I love to put them in interesting settings!! Sooo fun--this world of stamping.....
See more pics and instructions on my blog, Dreaming and Creating.
See you next time!!
Karen McAlpine

Friday, November 4, 2016

For the 31 Days of Halloween event that Lost Coast Designs recently participated in, I shared a spooky scene card, and wanted to explain a little about how I made this :

I loved the bright vivid colours that was created with nuance powders for the sky on water color paper. When it was dry I cut around the red central shape so I could slot in my moon. The moon was made by punching out a circle of yellow cardstock and then coating this is a few layers of silver glittery embossing powder.

Then I stamped Tree Branches background stamp by Lost Coast Designs on acetate with stazon ink. I made a black frame so I could hide the pop dots that add some depth to the piece. The words were typed on my typewriter.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

We sure did
over at Lost Coast Portal to Creativity! We participated as a Wicked
Blogger in the annual 31 Days of Halloween blog hop again and we're very
proud to have survived the 31 days of project shares..Phew, it's
exhausting but oh so much fun! Well done LCDesigners and a big THANK
YOU to everyone who hopped with us each day and left us lots of love!
To show our appreciation for all your support we're putting the names of
everyone who commented on all 31 days into the Witch's Hat and one
winner will receive a Halloween TREAT of $5 LCD/CV Bucks to spend in our
online stores! It's not too late if you missed all the fun...monster
binge our 31 DOH projects by Nov 5th to be included in the drawing!

The fun never ends as we rolled from Halloween straight into our Day of the Dead Celebrations after over at Lost Coast Portal to Creativity! The event is Oct 31 - Nov 18 with daily Day of the Dead
offerings from Oct 31st through today, Nov 2, for the traditional 3 day long celebration. Then stop by again Nov 9 and Nov 16 for more DOTD inspiration from the LCDesigners!

We unveiled our brand new Day of the Dead Angel to celebrate! This gorgeousLost Coast Designsstamp is available in two sizes, 5 inches and an ATC size!

We want to see your DOTD projects too of course and you are free to use any stamp companies in our events/challenges but if you use ours your entry counts as TWO! Enter your rubber stamped DOTD creations in the linky party at the bottom of the Oct 31st post by 5 to midnight PST on Nov 18! Don't forget to check out our Rules to ensure your projects are eligible to win our prizes!

Upcoming in November!

Our monthly Challengestarts on Nov 7th so stop by to see what fabulous inspiration the LCDesigners have in store for you!

We are super excited to launch our new segment called FAN FEATURES over at Lost Coast Portal to Creativity this month where we will showcase projects created by our fabulous Event and Challenge Winners!

So if you've won one of our past events or challenges then we would love to see what you created with your prize rubber stamps! Submit your projects for Fan Feature consideration to Leigh at LeighSBDesigns@cox.net or via Facebook messenger!

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

EEEKKK! Can you feel the excitement? The smell of cauldrons bubbling and the sounds of the witches cackles? Oh, how I love this time of year! Today I have a little make for you to add to your holiday cheer :)

First, is it Halloween without Alfred Hitchcock? I had this totally awesome postcard given to me and reluctantly due to my situation at home with my mom's health, used it to show off some of Lost Coast Designs great images! I used "A Murder of Crows" (love the name and the stamps; it is a set) and the "Crows Border" such a neat stamp to use over and over again! just to dress him up a bit! After all, he helped start all this wonderfulness so he deserves his day to shine!

He even got some golden ribbon to match those golden statues he MUST have!

Remember our events going on! Our monthly Lost Coast Portal to Creativity challenge is "Strange or Weird" what an appropriate theme for this month and so easy! And the Portal has all of our new stamps on view and ALL the info on ways to win super prizes (there are 2 up for this month!) so get a chance to go shopping at stamp heaven!

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Hello everyone! Marilyn here (yep, I baaaaccckkk!) to share with you a masculine greeting card.

I stamped Thick and Thin Men onto a piece of watercolor paper I had gesso'd black with Versamark ink and thin embossed the image with different colors of embossing powder. I cut the image out using a Sizzix die and then mounted it on top of a piece of scrapbook paper. I ran a piece of twine through a Tim Holz word band and then around to the back of the paper, securing with tape. I then mounted that onto a piece of colored cardstock.